The invention relates generally to the handling of livestock and, more particularly, to a livestock handling device including an animal restraining squeeze chute which is pivotable between a vertical animal entry and exit position and a horizontal operational position.
There is a need for livestock handling devices to facilitate the various health procedures and other treatments common in current animal husbandry practices. With respect to cattle, in particular, the animals may be dehorned, branded, castrated, vaccinated, and otherwise treated. The variety of procedures demanded require access to the animals from a number of different attitudes or positions.
The majority of existing animal handling devices consist of squeeze chutes which immobilize the animal in a vertical or standing position only. Access to the lower parts or extremities of the animal is difficult and inconvenient and may interfere with the effective treatment procedure being administered. Accordingly, a number of known animal handling devices have been manufactured which provide a variety of means for tilting the immobilized animal to other than a vertical position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,854 provides a squeeze chute which is mounted inside a rotatable carriage. An animal immobilized inside the squeeze chute may be rotated by the carriage as much as 180 degrees or more from its standing position.
A tiltable stock handling apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,477,213 in which a squeeze chute is pivotable about a single horizontal axis. An animal restrained inside the squeeze chute can thereby be tilted from a standing position to a substantially horizontal position by pivotable movement of the squeeze chute about the single horizontal axis.
The present invention also provides an animal squeeze chute that is pivotable between an animal receiving or standing position and a relatively horizontal, operational position. In contrast to the prior devices, however, the present invention has a pair of horizontal pivot axes which significantly decrease the effort required to shift the animal and squeeze chute and pivot the same to the horizontal position. Tilting of the squeeze chute is easily and efficiently accomplished by a single operator, and may be a simple continuation of the closing operation of the squeeze chute. As a result of the pair of horizontal pivot axes, the weight of the immobilized animal assists in the pivotable movement of the squeeze chute from the over-center shift position to the horizontal position.